Harley-Davidson Buying Ducati?

The strong rumors of Harley-Davidson offering $ 1.6 billion for Ducati have been trotted through most of today’s financial news outlets.

This is only weird if you remember Harley doing a decade long courtship with Erik Buell, then finally after a long engagement internalizing Buell into Harley and capitalizing on having Buell in the Harley-Davidson showroom by then shutting Buell down a few years later. And only if you remember Harley buying MV Agusta for $ 109 million and then two years later “selling” it back to (the late) Claudio Castiglioni for $ 4 euro–roughly $ 5 bucks.